mgo.licio.us

"The face of the operation is Briatore (referred to exclusively in the film by his colleagues and angry, chanting detractors as "Flavio"), an anthropomorphic radish who spends most of his time at QPR plotting to fire all of the managers."

At press time, Harbaugh had sent Michigan’s athletic department an envelope containing a heavily annotated seating chart, a list of the 63,000 seat views he had found unsatisfactory, and a glowing 70-page report on section 25, row 12, seat 9, which he claimed is “exactly what the great sport of football is all about.”

Caleb Stacey Decommits

I'll have more on the ramifications of this during the week, but 2012 OL Caleb Stacey announced on Twitter today—and it has been confirmed by multiple sources—that he has switched his commitment from Michigan to Cincinnati:

Before it gets out from anyone but me I have decided to decommitt from Michigan to stay home and play ball at the University of Cincinnati

An assistant coach at Cincinnati Oak Hills, Stacey's high school, told The Wolverine that Stacey wanted to stay closer to home ($), and that was the reason for the switch. Michigan now has 23 commits in the current class with room to take up to five more players, and they are among the finalists for three offensive line recruits: Josh Garnett, Jordan Diamond, and Alex Kozan. It's feasible that the coaching staff could take all three, bringing the total to seven offensive linemen in the class, if they desired to do so.

I hope you all will join me in wishing Caleb the best of luck at Cincinnati.

Not really surprised though. With all the top guys we are after, Stacey is a 3* that could potentially struggle to see the field. I still wish he was in the class, and sorry to see him go, but those are the breaks.

Frankly, I expected something like this (not Caleb specifically), and glad it happened well before NSD.

Makes sense, he wants to play instead of being a depth player. Hope we can get a playmaker at another position. We suddenly have 5-6 spots available with Stonum's departure and this decommit. Hopefully we can make a splash with some big time players.

I'll be clear on the "lost in the shuffle/depth player" thing. Stacey was the only guy slated to come in who really projected to center, a position of HUGE need right now. I think he would have had every chance to start at Michigan. It really sounds like this was all about being close to home, not a playing time issue at all. If it was, I think he would've decommitted a long time ago—it's not like Michigan's targets along the line have been any sort of secret.

Wouldn't distance have also pushed him to decommit a long time ago? It's even less of a secret that Ann Arbor isn't in Central Ohio after all...

I dunno. If you have inside info then I'll believe it certainly, but on the face of it, it sounds more likely that playing time was the concern rather than distance. It's not particularly far from home in the first place. As far as the possibilty of playing center - yes, that's a possibility at Michigan, but it's also only 1/3 as much playing time available as it would be if he could also realistically compete for the guard spots.

Seeing your playing time shrink from G/C/G to C is a big deal it would seem.

You never know when something can come up at home and change a situation quickly, and to be clear I'm just making a general statement when I say that—I don't know anything about what's going on with Stacey. To be perfectly honest, I don't think it's any of our business to question what he's saying about why he decommitted, especially without any real basis for doing so. Respect the kid's decision and be glad he's put himself in a better situation.

This isn't specifically targeted at you, kmedved. I've just seen this a lot and I don't think there's any point in speculation.

Nobody is trying to dig into his personal life. While his stated reason should be given a lot of weight, it would be foolish to ignore the numbers including the recent rumored commitment of Diamond and lean of Garnett, the fact that as recently as 5 days ago he had seemed quite happy with his commitment and the fact that this decommitment comes on the heels of an in home visit.

Well said. Not many kids are going to come out and say they were scared of the competition. Who knows what he was really thinking, but just because that's the story being floated doesn't mean it's the full scoop.

Not that it really changes your point that much, but Cincinnati isn't in central Ohio either. It's about a 4 hour drive from A2. Maybe that makes a difference to a kid, I dunno. It was probably more about comfort than distance as the crow flies (or as the car drives up I-75).

Good luck to Caleb - seemed like a nice kid who just realized he'd be fighting an uphill battle to see the field and made a prudent choice to stay closer to home. Wish him the best, and expect that this will lead to more commits down the line as space opens up.

Whatever the case may be, wish Caleb well. Sad to see him go. And ultimately doesn't matter the reason he left...he is gone, and we have to deal with it.

Williams is coming in as a TE. And I know, Ace and others are adamant that he stays there. I am not so convinced, after seeing him play several times this year. Time will tell. But for 2012, he is a TE.

And we are certainly tight on the roster with centers. After Khoury and Miller, it is a lot of blank space. Bryant and Barnum have been talked about there, but no idea if they have played the position in their entire lives. That said, we can probably survive 2012 without another C, but going forward we will need someone badly.

I am not gonna spend too much time judgeing him or trying to determine his motives. I like every single play we have recruited for this class so I am defenately not happy to see him go but he seems like a respectful kid who made a tough choice.

Sometimes harder for someone to decide this close to NSD, but good for him ot do it now, instead of after a year. Gives us some more flexibility recruiting-wise; love to see Brady pull 3-4 more high-quality guys, close the class, and have some more schollys for next year.

I hope not! He's been a commit since the very beginning and our only good prospect for center besides Kozan. I would be disappointed in the coaches if they told him to look somewhere else, instead of honoring their commitment to him.

It's definitely possible, but if you look at the timeline it's less likely than something happening at that meeting. And that something could be anything, maybe Smith made a bad impression... I have no idea. But Stacey had seemed very happy to be blue.

There's a fine line between telling a recruit that they're better off maybe looking at some other schools and just emphasizing that they will continue to recruit OL/OG players aggressively.

One sounds nefarious, while the other sounds just like responsible coaching/recruiting. I'm not sure they're actually any different. It would be crazy of Hoke to not keep recruiting aggresively, and it would be equally strange for players to not consider what that means for them.

Either a family member is ill or he has met the women he loves and is making a commitment to her rather than us. I don't blame him for either reason (or any reason for that matter).

Michigan is not so far from where he is in Ohio to feel perpetually homesick. Something rather serious has probably happened. Let us hope whatever it is - he is and his family are ok.

I am very dubious this is a depth chart thing. I also highly doubt we would slow play someone who is ALREADY committed to us. Hoke strikes me as a man of integrity and this is not something he would do to someone who is committed to him.

I'm disappointed to hear this. I think he'd have been a very good player at a position of need (center). It also changes our remaining recruiting to now. Before this, we had met all our needs and were looking for some very nice bonuses. Now, we have to add at least one more OL. It sounds like we're in good shape there, but it ups the stakes on getting at least one of Garnet, Diamond or Kozan.

Better on ya' Caleb to know you want to be close to home now.. Good luck to you in the future, much as we"d like to have you in Ann Arbor, your heart has to lead you to the right program, and Cincy ain't half bad. Best of luck from all of us from the Michigan folks with an unhealthy attention to recruiting :)

But in the end, we hope you've hit your right fit that will give you playing time and get you developed for the next level. The coaches clearly liked you for Michigan, so we can only hope that you can similarly develop into a beast at Cincy. And that Michigan and Cincy never play each other unless it's in the BCS Title Game.

even more of a possibility. I could be wrong, but aren't we recruiting him as a center? Chances of taking all three Garnett, Diamond and Kozan increases in my opinion. I'll take those three and Sam Grant to end the class, thank you.